This memorial for the God of Water one is in the neighbourhood of Sendai, near a temple of Yakushi Nyorai at Hoozawa. This stone memorial is two meters wide and about eight meters high, all of one huge stone.

Each of the gods also has his female counterpart, a sort of heavenly princess KI, 妃.

In other context, they may look different、as we will see below.

These gods may have evolved from animistic believes in India and Japan, whereby the reading of JIN may refer to a Japanese Deity and the reading of TEN to an Indian origin. In the pure Japanese Shintoo context, these names can also be read as for example Mizu no kamisama, Hi no Kamisama, see below.

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FOUR
refers to the four elements ofEarth, Water, Fire and Wind (Air).

The four elements of antiquity -- earth, water, air, and fire -- dominated natural philosophy for two thousand years. The premise that everything was formed from these four elements was developed by the Greek philosopher Empepedocles of Sicily, and continued to be believed until the rise of modern science.

Even today, earth, water, air, and fire are not bad symbols for the four states of matter -- solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.

Science has discovered new ideas, but in the field of Mysticism these elements are still important today, to illustrate the oneness of all. The ancient symbol is found after each element below. Some mystics insist that these four elements be placed on the temple and home sanctum alter. Some even go so far as to have earth, water and air from Egypt, to commemorate the origin of the Mystery Schools that later migrated to many parts of the world.source : salemos.tripod.com/

According to Mark, FOUR also occurs very frequently, both in ancient and traditional art in China and Japan, to represent the four directions (north, south, east, west), and also the fifth direction, the center (which in China refers to China itself).

Great gallery of the 12 in the Kyoto National Museum.http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin/kaiga/butsuga/item05.html

The above mentioned four elements together with the void make up the Five Elements, usually represented in Stone Markers, Gorin-Too.Gorintoo 五輪塔（ごりんとう）

The earth, water, fire, wind and the sky, which Buddhists believe create everything of the universe. The bottom stone is a cube and called the Earth ring expressing the earth. From the second, a sphere (Water ring), triangular shape like pyramid (Fire ring), semi-sphere (Wind ring) and placed on top is peach-shaped hoju (mani in Sanskrit) and is called Sky ring.http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/ishidoro.shtml

West; Water Deva; Skt : Varuna
Among the oldest Vedic gods; the personification of the heavens, and preserver of the universe; later becomes the lord of the Sun Gods, and still later the god of oceans and rivers.http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-devas.shtml

Sui-ten (Varuna) is a fair figure clothed in softly-colored and finely-decorated garments. He emerges gracefully from the dark-brown background like a water spirit, as his name, literally "water deva," suggests. His knees are highlighted with white gradations and decorated with delicate, finely detailed patterns. Such decorative techniques are characteristic of the late-Heian Period when production of Buddhist paintings was at its height.http://www.kyohaku.go.jp/eng/syuzou/meihin/kaiga/butsuga/item05_07.html

Dikpalas or directional guardians, are stationed around the four corners of many temples. The northwest corner, with guardians Varuna and Vayu is shown here.http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/india/khajuraho/khapar6.html

Varuna is also associated with or identical with the Dragon Deity (ryuujin, ryuuson), riding on a turtle or a dragon and living in the Palace in the Ocean (ryuugu). He holds a rope in his hand. In that version he has many snakes around his head. He is then also a protector of pregnancy and easy childbirth. Other sources present his vehicle, the animal he is riding on as a kind of crocodile-like sea monster, the Makara.http://darumapilgrim.blogspot.com/2006/02/dietrich-seckel.html

As The God of Water, Mizu no Kamisama, Mizugami, Suijinsama, he is widely revered in Japan. Even in my own backyard, there is a small grotto with a stone saying 水神, who is supposed to bring enough rain for the rice fields in due time and on the other hand protect us from too much of it causing landslides and more damage.

One link claims, 水神様とは下水菌のこと, Suijinsama is another name for the bacteria in the waste-water. The more you find in the water for cleaning the soil, the better is our environment.
It the bacteria are reduced due to environment pollution,the earth turns to salpeter, as for example near the thatched homes of Gokan Village in Toyama 五箇山.source : bigai world

Here another episode from my own experience comes to mind.

When we remodeled our old farmhouse, we had to do something about grandfather’s toilet. It was just a small pond in the ground, with two beams over it where you had to balance real hard while performing your job. Below you was the open sewer.

The local carpenter decided to drain the sewage water, fill the hole up with earth and level it with the rest of the ground. But before doing anything to this smelling place, we were informed, we had to pacify the Suijinsama living in this pond.

With plenty of ricewine (for the god and the humans) and purifying salt and a lot of mumbling prayers, the God was informed that his palace was to go and he would be relocated in a wet rice field further down. After the water was drained, a pipe was stuck in the hole before it was filled up, so that the Suijinsama who might have been left in the place would find their way out. This pipe is still sticking out to this day.

Kanda Myōjin (Myoojin)
A shrine founded in the 10th century, dedicated in part to the God of the Sea (Suijinsama). Kanda Myōjin became the tutelary shrine for much Edo, the emblematic shrine for the Citizens of Edo, the Edokko. Kanda Myoojin Shrine 神田明神

Okinohata Suitengu Festival 沖の端水天宮祭り
(May 13 - 15) 沖端水天宮祭り
It used to be from the 5th day of the old fourth lunar month.
For three days and nights, three "divine boats" with girls playing shamisen moor along the canal beside the shrine. On a stage (sanjinmaru) on the boat Kabuki and kyogen performances are held to please the three deities of the shrine. While they perform, the boats float very gently along the canal.
Women pray for the health of their children and to protect them from drowning.

The town of Yanagawa was quite important in olden times as a stopover from Nagasaki and Amakusa (Kumamoto prefecture).
Now some music groups from the Netherlands also perform.

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Northwest; Wind Deva Skt : Vayu, Anila, Gandhavaha
Typically appears as a elderly person, with white hair, red body armor, and holding a scepter of the wind in the right hand. The term "Futen-goshin-gassho" refers to a hand sign in esoteric Buddhist practices, acheived by creating a "ring" with the index finger and the thumb.http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-devas.shtml

The characters for fuu-ten mean "wind deva," and, accordingly, Fu-ten holds a scepter of the wind in his right hand. He is depicted as an old man. The elongated petals on the hosoge flower and arabesque patterns emanate a sense of dignified substance. Heavy layers of color on the face, large-scale patterns, sophisticated brushwork and a double-layered halo all contribute to the uniqueness of this elaborate Fu-ten.

The Wind God and the Thunder God are another pair to threaten humanity.

Here they are on a famous folding screen.

Quote:Both the Wind God and the Thunder God are originally subordinates to the Senju Kannon (Kannon-with-One-Thousand-Arms), and worshipped together with other twenty-eight Attendants. This is a copy of Sootatsu's crowning work by Koorin. While Sootatsu's original picture is characterized by a broad gold space and a composition with a strong feeling of tension, where the Wind God and the Thunder God face each other from both ends, Koorin showed a difference in creative sense by stabilizing the composition by placing the two gods at the center and trying to depict the figures of the two gods clearly with bright primary colors.http://www.emuseum.jp/cgi/pkihon.cgi?SyoID=2&ID=w307&SubID=s000

For the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.
and the 400th anniversary of the Rinpa School of Japanese Painting, artist Tara Yamamoto created an astonishing piece of art that threw a traditional twist on the two well known nintendo characters, Mario and Luigi.
In this painting, Mario and Luigi are depicted as the Japanese Deities Raijin and Fujin. - source : facebook Japanese Art -

Ji-ten, whose name means "earth deva," guards the downward direction and is the god of the earth. He is also called Kenrochijin. The vivid colors and exquisite decorative elements give this scroll an almost luminous beauty that is representative of late-Heian aristocratic tastes.

On the more down-to-earth animistic beliefs of rural Japan, I think he comes as Yama no Kami and Ta no Kami, the God of the Mountains and the Fields, who changes his residence twice a year, retreating in autumn to the mountains and coming back in spring to the fields. This is a fascinating tale of its own.

In Shinto, when a mountain is considered an object of worship, a yamamiya may be established at the summit or on the side of the mountain, as at Sengen Jinja on Mt Fuji. In some cases, the yamamiya may be regarded as an "interior shrine" (okumiya) in contrast to a shrine located in a village (see satomiya) or lower on the mountain. Some scholars see the yamamiya associated originally with ancestor worship, and thus also with the dual complex of mountain god (yama no kami) and rice field god (ta no kami).http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/bts/bts_y.html

The Village of Living Water – HarieMany buildings in this Harie district have a kabata,which residents use to draw water for everyday tasks. We went to see for ourselves the unique, intimate relationship between the lives of the area’s residents and their water.

This is the sign above the volunteer station in Harie. It says "The Village of Living Water." They provide tours of Harie's unique kabata culture. A kabata uses spring water, carp and streams to bring fresh water into homes. The entire system is self sustaining and is the perfect synergy of man and nature.... Basically, water coming down from the mountains meets with the water table from the lake, and that water is drawn by the people in Harie. The guides give a wonderful explanation.The Village of Living Water – Harie

This is one of the many canals that flow through Harie. The guide explained that these are very clean and . . . . .

Lecture in Kyoto, May 30, 2017“Sea Theologies: Elements for a Conceptualization of Maritime Religiosity in Japan” Fabio Rambelli A glaring blind-spot in Japanese religious studies is the lack of attention dedicated to conceptual (and theological) elements in sea-based beliefs and practices. As a consequence, we know very little about the theology of the sea and sea deities dwelling in the abyss. This talk will focus on three different aspects of sea-related cults: the role of the sea in the Nakatomi no harae great purification ritual, the status of treasure ships (takarabune), and the nature of boat spirits (funadama). These three elements are normally treated separately, and are not explored in their theological and philosophical implications, but the talk will show that, when combined, they offer a unique perspective on Japanese maritime religiosity as it was practiced and imagined by different agents and groups: fishing communities (as in the case of funadama), ritual specialists and intellectuals (in the commentaries on the Nakatomi no harae), and larger communities (as in the images of takarabune associated with widespread cults of the seven gods of good fortune or shichifukujin). It will be argued that these three elements function as semiotic shifters−representations and agents of change, transformation, and movement, all features of maritime religiosity..http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/institute/access-institute/access_e.htm.

Ta no Kami, Ta-no-Kami 田の神 Tanokami, God of the Fields - another name is. jigami, jishin, chigami, chijin 地神 Kami of the Earth / the Land . .https://japanshrinestemples.blogspot.jp/2017/08/ta-no-kami-legends.html.

毘沙門様 Bishamon SamaBishamon Sama is a greedy deity. If one borrows money it has to be given back in double.He is also seen as Sakugami.On the 13th day of the first lunar month, farmers place 20 soy beans into the hearth. If they all become black, it will be a good harvest this year.If only half will get black, only half of the good harvest.On the 15th day of the 6th lunar month, cucumbers are offered in the hope they will induce 豊作 a good harvest. .https://japanshrinestemples.blogspot.jp/2017/08/tanokami-shanichi-day-of-shrine.html.

yamanokami and mizunokami 山神と水神 Yama no Kami, Kami of the mountainand his rival Mizu no Kami, Kami of the waterAt the shrine 笠山神社 / 瘡山神社 Kasayama Jinja in Kitasoma village there is a legend about Yamanokami and Mizunokami.They compared the number of their kenzoku 眷属 followers and servants and found they both had the same number.But later by chance Okoze fish was found and the Kami of Water won.Since that time,to make the Kami of the Mountain feel good, people bring offerings of votive tablets with an Okoze painting..https://japanshrinestemples.blogspot.jp/2017/10/tanokami-yamanokami-okoze-legends.html.